Coalition of Scientists and AIDS Advocates Calls on Congress to Support Clinton AIDS Research Reform Proposals

01/22/93

16:50 RICHMR4 UCSD*UACi [phone]

"O. 761 FP002/03

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO UCSD
bEKKF-LEY DAVIS * VINE *. LOS ANGELES * Rt RS[D SAN DIEGO. SAN FRANCISCO SANTA BARBARA, SANTA CRUZ
VIROLOGY SECTION AND DEPARTMENTS OF PATHOLOGY AND MEDICINE. 0679
INFECTIOUS DISEASES SECTION 9500 GILMAN DRIVE
VETERANS AFFAIRS MEDICAL CENTER LA JOLLA. CALIFORNIA 92091-O679
TEL: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
January 22, 1993
Senator Edward Kennedy, Chair
Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum, Ranking Member
Senate Committee on Labor & Human Resources
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510
Fax: [phone]
Dear Senators Kennedy and Kassebaum:
As an Investigator in the chemotherapy and pathogenesis of AIDS, I am distressed that
budgetary support for quality and peer reviewed research has significantly diminished and that
governmental interference and lack of support have undermined constructive efforts to address
the important problems facing us in AIDS. Administrative changes need to be made and
additional well directed funding needs to be Identified.
As an AIDS researcher, I am writing also to support provisions in the NIH Reauthorization Bill
(S. 1) which would strengthen efforts to coordinate AIDS research at the National Institutes of
Health. These provisions will provide NIH with the critical ability to carry out strategic planning
and coordination of AIDS research throughout NIH.
Specifically, I strongly urge the inclusion of the following provisions:
* Provide the NIH Office of AIDS Research (OAR) with the resources, staff and authority
to develop and implement a long-term strategic plan for AIDS research throughout the
NIH, including budgetary authority to move resources among Institutes to ensure that
the strategic plan is carried out.
* Give the OAR Director authority to submit a bypass (professional Judgement) budget
similar to that of the National Cancer Institute, directly to the President, and authority to
distribute the NIH AIDS research budget to the Institutes in accordance with the
annually.revised strategic plan.
* Enhance the position of Director of the Office of AIDS Research to become a full-time,
presidential appointie who will: (1) report directly to the Director of the NIH, (2) sit on
relevant executive branch AIDS task forces, and (3) coordinate research efforts between
NlH Institutes, other research institutes and industry.